{"id":547899,"date":"2026-04-24T07:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T07:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/547899\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T07:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T07:56:14","slug":"review-myrath-wilderness-of-mirrors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/547899\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Myrath – Wilderness of Mirrors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Published by Daniel<\/a> on 2026\/04\/232026\/04\/23<\/p>\n

\"\"Cover art by Chiyoko Asahi<\/a><\/p>\n

Style: Progressive metal, power metal
Recommended for fans of: Green Carnation<\/a>, Symphony X, Dream Theater<\/a>, Majestica
Country: Tunisia & France
Release date: 27 March 2026<\/p>\n

A first impression is the most honest listen you\u2019ll ever have, and sometimes the most punishing. When I sit down with an album, I try, as a matter of some-but-not-absolute principle, to approach it on its own terms\u2014no comparisons to past work or other genre makers, no reputation to confirm or confound. I don\u2019t always succeed, but with Myrath, the progressive metal vets behind Wilderness of Mirrors, I at least had a fighting chance since this is my introduction to them. Whether coming in blind did the album any favors is harder to say. A listener familiar with their catalog might have known what to expect, or been predisposed to forgive. I had neither buffer\u2014I just hit play\u2014and Myrath told me exactly who they were.<\/p>\n

The band hails from Tunisia, and their best moments draw on North African musical flavors. Instruments like the saz and the qraqeb, combined with vocal harmonies and string melodies that owe as much to the Mediterranean coast as to the European metal that surrounds them, all integrate into the band\u2019s progressive power metal concoction in ways that are genuine, not just decorative. Opener, \u201cThe Funeral,\u201d is the fullest expression of that identity: a five-minute thesis statement built on kinetic guitar work, a soaring and infectious vocal performance from Zaher Zorgati, and a sense of joyful cultural synthesis that makes the band sound like few others in the progressive metal landscape. It\u2019s my favorite individual song that I\u2019ve heard so far this year.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

That identity doesn\u2019t vanish after \u201cThe Funeral\u201d, but it does stop commanding the room. What carries Wilderness of Mirrors through its remaining nine tracks is Zorgati\u2019s voice, which is, to put it plainly, exceptional. His upper register is vast and his vibrato pulsating (without being distracting), and he deploys both in service of melodies so haltingly catchy that they are instantly familiar, destined to click into place exactly as they are. The production is immaculate throughout; the musicianship is never in question; and the band\u2019s North African influences remain a genuine presence rather than window dressing. For a good stretch of the album\u2019s first half, that\u2019s more than enough.<\/p>\n

The first sign of trouble, though, arrives in the album\u2019s latter half. \u201cSoul of My Soul\u201d is a slower, more restrained affair than its predecessors, a quasi-ballad that breaks the album\u2019s steady pace. Every time I get to his track, the realization that the momentum had already quietly stopped hits me. The song isn\u2019t the album\u2019s weakest moment, but the change in texture is what makes me notice that I\u2019ve been quietly drifting. Somewhere between \u201cThe Funeral\u201d and here the music shifted from something that I was actively listening to into something I was passively receiving. The culprit isn\u2019t any single song so much as a gradual envelopment in overly similar compositional structures and melodies\u2014riffs that are made up more of chord progressions than individual notes, rhythms that settle and stay settled, and the vocal work carrying the weight of every composition.<\/p>\n

Momentary exceptions exist, of course, like the spastic guitar licks of \u201cThe Clown\u201d or standout \u201cStill the Dawn Will Come.\u201d In the latter, a bombastic chorus anchors a poppy verse and a djentastic breakdown. Its strings pull double duty, providing those North African textures in the bridges, and more Western-infused power metal accompaniment in the chorus. But ultimately, Wilderness of Mirrors is front-loaded. The songs don\u2019t collapse in the back half so much as they recede. They\u2019re competent and polished, but increasingly difficult to tell apart. Closer, \u201cThrough the Seasons,\u201d briefly bucks the trend: a catchy chorus, a riffy bridge, and strings that demand your attention rather than merely request it. That it arrives so late, and still can\u2019t quite reach the heights of anything on the front half, makes for an album of diminishing returns.<\/p>\n

Wilderness of Mirrors really hangs on \u201cThe Funeral\u201d alone\u2014a song so immediately impactful that it sets a bar the rest of the record can\u2019t possibly clear. That\u2019s the particular cruelty of a track that served both as my introduction to Myrath and the album\u2019s opening statement: it recalibrates your expectations in real time, and everything after it gets measured against a standard it didn\u2019t ask to set. Myrath know who they are, and they showed me in the first five minutes. I spent the remaining 40 waiting for them to show me again.<\/p>\n

Recommended tracks: The Funderal, Les Engants Du Soleil, Still the Dawn Will Come
You may also like: Seventh Wonder<\/a>, Vanden Plas<\/a>, Anubis Gate<\/a>
Final verdict: 6\/10<\/p>\n

Related links: Website<\/a> | Facebook<\/a> | Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n

Label: earMusic<\/a><\/p>\n

Myrath is:
\u2013 Malek Ben Arbia (guitars)
\u2013 Morgan Berthet (drums)
\u2013 K\u00e9vin Codfert (keyboards, backing vocals)
\u2013 Anis Jouini (bass)
\u2013 Zaher Zorgati (lead vocals)
With guests:
\u2013 Wassin Bibi (choirs)
\u2013 Radhi Chaouali (violin, qraqeb)
\u2013 Cheikh Diallo (backing vocals)
\u2013 Fehmi Mbarki (saz)
\u2013 Galya Nikolaeva (choirs)
\u2013 Elize Ryd (vocals)
\u2013 Charly Sahona (guitars)
\u2013 Frank Serafine (choirs)<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n